The Play Date
by DarkPriestessOfHyrule
Summary: Tenzin was not looking forward to having a play date with Lin at all...


**A/N: WARNING! DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!...I CHECKED, IT ISN'T HEALTHY.**

 **Okay, I know I might have gotten the ages wrong for how they act since I never had younger siblings or spent much time with kids so I can't really talk from experience. Lin is five and Tenzin is eight so that will help a bit. Just enjoy it and forget about that stupid logic. Grrr logic grr! Anywho, I selected "Su finding out that Lin lost her bending" from the prompts you guys left me. It will probably take a bit because I am making it longer but I plan on doing it eventually.**

 **OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

Tenzin wasn't looking forward to having a playdate with Lin. They hadn't really seen much of each other save for those few times Aunt Toph came over for dinner bringing Lin who was always silent. He didn't miss how she punched Bumi if he made jokes about her though and the airbender was afraid he might do something to insult her resulting in being punched himself. He had tried to talk his way out of playing with her but since Bumi was out with Uncle Sokka and Kya was stuck indoors studying for her waterbending exam there was no one to occupy Lin while her mother was pulling a double shift at the station.

 _"-Tenzin, would you like to be alone at someone's house with no one to play with you?"_

 _"I'm too old to play."_

 _"I'm telling on you." his mother said in such a way that it made Tenzin wonder if he was actually in trouble. "Your father is not going to be happy one bit when he finds out his son is too old to race on air scooters."_

 _"Well that's fine but-" he interrupted quickly not wanting to make his father think he didn't like doing airbender games. Those were fine. No one else could play airbending games with him- he stopped realizing what his mother was getting at. Lin was probably lonely since her mother was pregnant. She'd probably only pay attention to the new baby and not Lin when it was born. The airbender wasn't sure, but when he was younger he remembered Bumi chuckling and saying that he wouldn't be the youngest forever and that it wouldn't be nearly as fun then. Bumi didn't know what he was talking about. Being the youngest meant he had to have someone take him places and if no one was able to he had to stay home._

 _"-Lin doesn't have any earthbender friends Tenzin and aren't airbenders supposed to help people in need?" Katara asked with a raised brow._

 _"Yeah but-"_

 _"-BUT Lin needs help finding a friend."_

 _"Fiiiine!" Tenzin grumbled as his mother smiled and gave him a kiss on the forehead._

 _"Just remember that Beifongs like to rough house like Bumi does, so don't try to play anything too physical." The waterbender warned as he left the house._

Tenzin let an involuntary shiver go down his spine. Bumi was the worst rough houser! He would put him in a headlock and mess around by rubbing his bald head jokingly calling him baldy or even coming up behind Tenzin and throwing him over his shoulder to carry the younger brother into the sitting room only to toss him onto the couch. His brother didn't actually hurt him, but he certainly wasn't gentle. Lin and Bumi hit it off great, wrestling and stuff but Tenzin didn't like to wrestle and would always hide out in his room or go to meditate whenever she and Bumi would start causing trouble.

He found Lin sitting in a large mud puddle with her back to him seeming to be having a fine time by herself. He had to think positively- she was two years younger than him so they had to at least have something in common. "EEEEWWW!" He shouted when he had come face to face with Lin. "YOU'RE EATING MUD!" He pointed a finger at her as she lowered the hand full of wet dirt from her mouth.

"It's minerals and minerals are good for you. Don't shout either it makes you sound like a sissy." The young Beifong crinkled her nose going to take another bite.

"DON'T EAT IT!" Tenzin held a hand up to try and stop her. She ate mud! It was so gross! How could he play with someone who ate mud? The boy also noticed her earth kingdom robes were stained with it as well making him look down in fear at his perfectly clean ones scared they would suffer the same fate by the time this awful play date was over.

"Don't you need to be sitting with your eyes closed or something?"

"It's called meditating and I can't because mom wants me to play with you."

"Well you're a twinkle toes and Uncle Aang is the only twinkle toes that gets to be in the club." She looked him right in the eye and took a bite of mud with an evil smirk just to bug him.

 _Deep breathing. I can do this._ He chanted silently before opening his eyes and swallowing the lump in his throat hoping not to get sick. "What kind of club? And if dad can join why can't I?" The boy huffed crossing his arms. She didn't get to exclude him, that wasn't fair!

"It's the club of earthbenders. Bumi is a member because he can fight. You can only be a member if you're tough and you look as soft as a pillow- Don't ruin my meal by puking!" Lin yelled standing up quickly to push him away in case he did since the older boy was looking a bit green. "Your mom won't let you back until you play with me and I can't play with non club members."

"How can I join since I'm not an earthbender?" _The stuff I do for mom._

His non playmate paused rubbing her chin with a clean hand as she thought about a challenge for him. She finally smiled bending over to gathering more mud before coming to stand an arm's length away from him and holding it out. "You gotta eat it."

"No! I'm not eating that!" Tenzin yelped stumbling back several steps as he tried to get away from the extended hand.

"I knew you were just a sissy baldy." She sneered tossing the mud in the air with one hand and catching it. "You can either eat it or we can duel. It isn't bad, it's just a bit crunchy but it tickles once it's in your stomach." When Tenzin gave no response she shook her head slowly. "Why don't you run back to your spinny gates and hide there since you're such a baby?"

Tenzin growled snatching the mud from her hand rather roughly and looked down at the dirt which had already stained his sleeve. He wasn't a sissy; he would be an airbending master just like his father, then no one would question him. He couldn't let her win though, eating a bit of mud wouldn't kill him. Tenzin had raised the mud close enough to his face that he could smell the wet earth before losing his composure and tossing it out. "No! I won't do it."

The muddy girl growled briefly before snapping her fingers and looking up at him with a smile. "You wait here and don't leave because I will be able to find you if you do." With that she ran off towards the house without a single glance back. Five minutes later she returned holding a bundle of celery stalks above her head only lowering it when she rejoined him. Lin selected a long stalk and tossed him the rest of the bundle making him almost drop it in surprise. She squatted in the dirt, coating the vegetable in a thin layer of mud and smoothing a bit in the curves of the celery. After giving it one swipe with her fingers to make sure there wasn't too much on it she held it out in his direction. "Well? Airbenders eat vegetables, right? It's just dirty vegetables." Lin reasoned. "You can't say you haven't eaten unwashed celery before."

The boy looked at the offered snack with a wince. True he had eaten some unwashed vegetables when his mother wasn't looking and he had been too hungry to wait for her to cook an entire meal, but those vegetables weren't coated in mud! When one last pleading look he sent her way went unanswered Tenzin pinched his nose with two fingers to stop the taste and took a large bite. He ignored the nasty texture that thinly coated the celery finally able to stop when he swallowed the last bit, holding his breath until he trusted himself to release his pinched nose.

"Not bad twinkle toes. You just might have what it takes to be in the club." She smiled making him return it with one of his own after wiping his watering eyes. "Now that you are in we can play. What do you want to do?"

"Umm..." Tenzin remembered his mother's warning about physical sports before quickly thinking of something. "We could play hide and seek." That was a safe sport it was just hiding and finding someone.

"Okay, but you can't hide in the air or in trees because that isn't fair."

Once he nodded Lin covered her eyes and began counting down from sixty. The joke was on her since he knew the best hiding spots, she'd never find him even if he had stayed on the ground. It wasn't until a minute in a half later that he realized they never decided on where base would be. That hadn't mattered though when he realized that the ground beneath him was shaking Tenzin barely avoided falling in when it split down the middle using a burst of air to propel him out of harm's way only to miss a rock that was thrown in the air by mere inches. "HEY! What's the big idea? We were supposed to play hide and seek!"

"We are. How do you play it?" She tilted her head to the side slightly.

"Well we don't throw rocks at each other for one and another thing-"

"You know base is the statue of that monk." Lin pointed to a distant statue of Monk Gyatso that his father had brought with him to the island. "Ten second head start."

He didn't need to be told twice as he used his airbending speed run past her in a burst of wind and dirty robes. The statue wasn't far now and he would have been able to reach it if Lin hadn't raised a high wall of rock throwing him off balance as he did a rather impressive manuver to avoid hitting it head first. Again he could hear the earth beneath his feet and turned to see Lin riding a small wave of dirt and rock closing in fast. She laughed as the earth shot her in the air and had come down slamming her fist on the ground sending earth pillars at him from all directions. If he wasn't so good at the spinning gates he would probably have been beaten to a pulp right now.

Every attack he dodged made her laugh and fire even more earth at him. He had done a pretty good job avoiding her attacks only missing a few which he knew his mother would heal but he was tiring fast. Was she crazy?! She was acting like they were playing a fun game of Pai Sho not a game of 'Dodge-My-Attack-Or-Become-A-Pancake'. Lin had been getting ready to launch another rock at him when he turned around and fired a hard gust of air which threw her back and sent her slamming into the ground where she remained motionless. Tenzin looked in horror tripping over himself to get to her. _What have I done?! I hit a girl! The girl was attacking me but still! Airbenders aren't supposed to hurt people!_

Tenzin was almost hysterical when he finally reached her to find that her eyes were shut and her face was pinched in pain. "Lin I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!" He said urgently trying to shake her shoulders gently. He let out a surprised cry when a long stone shot out of the ground from behind and held him in the air by his robes.

The earthbender gave him a mischievous smile as she opened her eyes and recovered to her feet. "I'd be running if I was you." Lin chuckled lowering him gently to the ground. She made a shooing motion with her hand taking up the Chu Gar stance her mother had been showing her. Tenzin's eyes had widened even more making him quickly flee to the only safe place he could think of.

 **OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

Katara had brought out a pot of tea to hold over everyone until dinner was finished cooking and let them lounge around in the sitting room to catch up. She found out at some point during the day that all the celery she was going to put in the soup had vanished and there was a path of small muddy footprints leading from the kitchen to the front door. She had a feeling Lin was the culprit, but the girl hated vegetables with as much passion as her uncle and mother did. The older woman looked out the window to see that the sun was starting to set but there was still no sign of the kids.

"Sweetness, your pacing is giving me a headache." Toph called out from where she was lounging back on the couch with Sokka sitting beside her. "Last I checked everyone worth pacing over is here and their heartbeats say that they're bored as a snailsloth. Speaking of stuff that likes to get dirty, where's my pup?"

"I sent Tenzin out to play with her an hour ago and I haven't seen them since." The waterbender said running to the window to look out it again.

Aang was unsure of how he felt about this and glanced at Sokka who stood up and dusted some crumbs from the small tea cakes off of his pants. "I can go out and look for them if you want." Sokka suggested.

"Faaaaaah, Lin will take care of twinkle toes junior." The blind earthbender gave a dismissing wave of her hand, a smirk coming to her face when she felt the vibrations that said four small feet were running towards them.

Before anyone could reply the sliding door burst open and a winded Tenzin came pelting in gasping for breath just to be sent flying through the air by a wave of dirt summoned by his pursuer. "Whoa there!" His uncle said catching him in the air. "I thought airbenders weren't supposed to be flying through the air without their gliders."

"Have a fun day pup?" Toph asked with a smile not even phased by Tenzin's less than gentle entrance into the room.

"Yup." Lin came forward when Sokka put him down and pulled Tenzin back to her by the collar of his airbending robes to keep him from running off. "I like him. I think I'll keep him." She gave a conceeding nod to the boy. Lin turned to glare at a blond haired air acolyte who was passing by and had popped her head in the door to see if everything was alright. "Shoo! He's off the market." The girl snipped emphasizing this by linking her arm through Tenzin's and crossing them in annoyance. She was so focused on Tenzin that the girl hadn't noticed the apologetic look Katara sent to the acolyte as the younger woman ran off.

Sokka chuckled as he turned to Aang and raised a brow. "I think you should start letting her call you 'dad'. Man their babies are going to be adorable." he said proudly hoping that the very distant future kids-to-be would acquire the dormant boomerang expert gene that ran in the family.

"Oh no way my girl is getting hitched to junior airhead over there." Toph objected only to have Bumi cut her off by getting up and kneeling by Lin who was holding his younger brother like a stuffed bear.

"Don't worry auntie Toph, everyone knows it's me that she fancies." He pointed to his chest as he felt Lin's smaller foot make contact with his shin. "See?" Bumi grinned with a pained smile. "She says she loves me."

"Sugar Queen," the chief let out a long sigh turning her blind gaze to Katara. "What is the deal with your boys being all obsessed with my kid?"

"I don't know Toph, I just don't know." Katara shook her head slowly.

"Well if they want something with my girl they better be prepared."

"Well that's asking a lot. No one's ever prepared enough to deal with a Beifong." Sokka laughed happy for the padding his coat gave him as Toph replied with a hard punch to the arm.

 **OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

 **A/N: Poor little Tenzin getting a Beifong style play date-Lin is a tiny terror. To be fair though he grows up to have a bunch of kids while Lin sleeps alone (BY CHOICE!) but at least she likes him now since he was able to make it through a game of 'hide-and-get-squished'. The whole thing where she was attacking during hide and seek came from the 'Headband' episode of AtLA where the firebending kids were playing 'hide and explode' with Aang. Hope you enjoyed it and do not eat mud- only earthbenders (and Tenzin) can do that.**


End file.
